August 5th Sometimes I forget stuff. Is it an age thing, maybe, I wouldn’t like to speculate. There I was, ready for a nice walk this morning, when the Minister of Health reminded me that my heart medication needed topping up, today! Ah well, to the hospital we went.
Huan saw an opportunity for a free blood pressure test so off she scuttled. She did it three times because she was not happy with the first result. Can you spot the deliberate error? PS She had nothing to worry about, even the nurse checked.
I refused to go and test mine; I thought you didn’t need yet another photo of me having my BP done. Instead I went to photograph the fish, a young girl followed me, and Huan took the photo! There was only one fish and he was very mobile.
It was then back to waiting for me, the hospital was quite busy today.
SWMBO still needed more photos so here is the information board; I am #14, next in line. And here I am counting out my money again.
Hospital over we had to go into town to buy the pills that the hospital didn’t have. They were the same ones as last time, the most expensive ones. I took the opportunity to also pop into the market and buy some button mushrooms. End of day.
August 6th The love of my life suggested a bus‘n’walk today, the #1 bus and an Atuoling walk. That sounded good to me, we haven’t been that way for a while. Before getting on the bus though she had already found one lizard and one bird.
Off the bus and past the party school we came to the village turn off.
It is one of our favourite places to walk. Of course we have many such places, but we do love all of them. Here we found two young girls who greeted us as though they knew us. We both think that it has been too long since we passed by here for ones so young to have that memory. In this photo they are warning us about the ants.
Starting from where we did the walk is not too long and soon we were approaching the point at which we either had to cross the valley or return the same way.
Just before climbing, (or walking), up the other side I found a butterfly, rather a strangely shaped one don’t you think. It seems to have one wing only. I have no idea what the odd ‘smudge’ is on the body, maybe it is in the middle of metamorphosing.
And then up the slope we went. It was not as easy as last time!
Chicken farms were still prevalent on the way down again.
And then, before we knew it, we were back on the main downhill road.
You might be able to see from those photos that walking towards the traffic, as I have always been taught to do, is pretty shady. It’s like that all the way down. Madame however was walking on the other side and soon called me over to carry out my duties as her cameraman.
And then I saw the bus, twice! I saw it once, waiting for the off, and then the second time after the ‘off’ that we missed!
Taking the bus is supposed to mean we walk less, thus keeping the doctors happy. It’s true, we do walk less, but we still ended up with seven and a half kilometres today. At least it is less than ten which is what we were doing a lot of before!
After lunch and naps dinner was on me again, another western dish. Fried pork, mashed potato and baked beans with a homemade sauce. The pork had been marinated overnight, the mash was normal, butter added and the beans were from a tin. The sauce was made from garlic, onions and mushrooms, fried in the pan after the meat. Once I decided they were cooked enough I added some milk, let them cook a bit more and added a little corn flour. If I was to cook this again I would give the sauce a whiz, which would improve it. However, the boss approved and cleared her plate, and I cleared mine too! This was her plate. Mine looked messier.
August 7th My turn to choose, a walk around the town and river, not many photos expected but I didn’t fancy a long one. When you pass your driving test in China it is customary to have a sticker on your car for the first year to advise other drivers. Do you think that this new driver was somewhat lacking in confidence that they would be seen?
On our way we saw that one of our feathered friends was out of his cage. I tried to get him to perch on my finger but he went for his Dad’s shoulder instead.
I chased him around a bit and finally got a decent snap.
Another old friend was seen, this one had been a pup the last time we met. His memory turned out to be far better than mine!
It’s a bug’s life sometimes. This turned out very different on the computer to what we actually thought we saw on the riverside wall.
A new friend was then seen, his photo is considerably cropped, the randy old boy!
This was an unusual one so we will give you two photos so that you can possible see why. In the first photo you can see that the insect is not going for the stamen but more likely the ovules. The second photo is just more of the insect.
And our last creature gets four photos included. So many times we fail miserably with squirrels that we felt obliged to show all of these. PS We actually had a lot more.
So much for not many photos today! All that strenuous picture taking wore us both out, our nap was longer than usual. No complaints though.
August 8th My plan was curtailed by the office, they decided they needed Huan at nine o’clock for some admin work. Building #2 is to have a new lift and ‘owners’ were required to sign off on it along with the maintenance company. Let’s hope they do a good job on it before they get around to our building. #2 is where we rent our premises to a restaurant. I took the low road and left Huan to take the high.
Soon she appeared, walking across the dam.
Our short(ish) walk gave us one or two problems but we made it through the riverbed without getting our footwear too dirty.
Now this is one for all you civil engineers out there, and the not so civil ones if you like! Why is there a square tower balanced on a circular base? Why is not even central? Why would there be three of them in a row? They have been there for some time now. It is possible that there will be some sort of park built in that area.
What would a walk be without a mountain or two?
Cows were next, twice, with a few minutes between the two locations.
From farm animals we go to farmers, it is rice planting season. Actually, they plant more than once a year here so season could be the wrong word.
And this is what it looks like when their job is done.
Would you like to see some more bugs? OK, here you are.
We’ll finish today’s walk with more mountains and cows, hope you don’t mind.
Later, it was my turn in the kitchen again, today was a chicken curry. The chicken had been in the fridge marinating all night, the tatties were par boiled yesterday too. Today it was time to put it all together with some onion, red bell pepper, mushroom and garlic. We had Huan’s flat bread instead of rice. No photos I’m afraid but we both thought it was yummy!
August 9th Yet another relaxing day for us two tropical retirees, nothing was needed in the market today, just fresh air and exercise. One of our frequently visited stores in the bap market had news for us. Her dog had given birth to ten pups. I did try and take a photo for you but it did not work out. Instead here is a portrait of Doding.
Huan was very worried that we wouldn’t have enough photos this week so she snapped eighteen of me choosing tomatoes. Yes, I know I said we didn’t need anything but I changed my mind and decided that tomatoes would go well with today’s dinner.
It may be long after Shrove Tuesday but I found pancakes! We didn’t buy any though.
Sometimes you see things that don’t appear to fit in with what your memory says they should be. On our way home I had to take this photo because I could not work out what I was looking at. Once at home, and on the computer monitor, I realised that it was the steps from the other side of the bridge leading towards the irrigation canal. It’s still a nice photo though, don’t you agree?
So what was that dinner I mentioned earlier? Because we are going up north tomorrow, salad was off the menu today. Instead I decided t finish off a pack of sausages from the freezer and make sausage, egg and chips. The tomatoes were an extra. We cheated and bought the chips from a takeaway but they tasted good enough. In fact it was a nice change to have a fry-up.
August 10th Admin in the morning for both of us. Huan did some ironing, I prepared the laptop for our trip. It’s just a case of making sure the right photos and files are on there really but it does take quite some time. Of course, Windows decided I needed a thousand updates since we haven’t used the laptop since May. We were on the road before two. The car was an oven when we set off, thermometer reading 42ºC, and the air conditioning was taking its own sweet time. The weather was good when we left but just as the car cooled down the rain arrived. I guess that helped a lot with the cooling, you can see the temperature dropping!
And then we were over the hills and far away, back in sunnier climes.
After checking in at our usual hotel we went out to find dinner. I forgot to ‘have a pee’ before we left so we were going all over the place trying to find a public convenience. These were the views after we found one in the covered market area.
No time or inclination for fancy food, we went for a cheap buffet style place.
And here is what we chose, middle bottom two for me, top left for Huan, vegetables and rice to share. It did the job!
And then it was back to the hotel for an early night to make sure I would not be late for my appointment in the morning.
August 11th Don’t you just hate artificial waking in the morning? Being retired we rely on having had enough kip and daylight through the windows. Today the phone woke me and after coffee we went out for breakfast. We were not first in the greasy spoon but we certainly were nowhere near the last. Check the numbers.
This morning, breakfast was the same for both of us, fried noodles takes longer and I did not want to risk wasting time. We had one of these each.
Our appointment was with Dr. Liáng, in the building where they zapped me earlier this year.
While seeing the doctor Huan heard about the ‘pain’ in my left leg now and then. She looked quite shocked that she didn’t know so humble apologies were offered. I knew that nothing could be done before this visit anyway so I kept quiet about it. I ended up walking out with bundles of paper, all sorts of tests needed. Here they are, redacted!
We set off to the nuclear scanning facility first, that was paper #1. It ended up being #4, we have to go back tomorrow, three times. First for an injection, second for the scan and then third for the result. OK we thought, and headed off for the destination of #2 and #3 papers. Wrong again! They sent us off to #4 destination, time to empty my arm again. My number was 54, we arrived as 24 was being seen to. However, they are very efficient here and it didn’t take long until it was my turn. No one seemed eager to take my place.
There seems to be an extra test this time, the results will not be available until tomorrow afternoon. Ah well, back to destinations 3 and 4, the MRI scanner. This time my arm would not be emptied but filled with something, I know not what.
I was behind the big door for much longer than the last time I was here, perhaps forty-five minutes. The staff came in half way through and reversed whatever was lying across my lower stomach. They gave me cotton wool to stuff in my ears this time, I’m sure I never needed it before. The test ended up being much longer and much noisier than previous tests. I could even feel the machine moving now and then. Hopefully they will find nothing but we won’t find out until tomorrow.
Then we were on to the unnumbered papers, not so important as the numbered ones. We visited the ‘mainline’ room to see if the female hormones and the bone strengthening medicine needed any time between them. The staff told us that it was not necessary so we said we would be back after lunch. That was a serving of dumplings each, we forgot to take photos.
Huan was not allowed to take photos of me being filled with female hormones so she took one after instead. I am holding the third cotton bud in place; I had gotten up too early with the previous ones. During my consultation this morning we asked Dr. Liang about the brown constellation across my belly, it was not there before the radiotherapy. Nothing to worry about, they are just normal for old people! I suggested leaving the belt buckle visible, especially as nothing below it works anymore!
Finally for today’s hospital stint, here I am having Polyfilla fed into my bones.
If you think I look a little tired there, you would not be wrong. Huan was almost as bad. Our brains were well and truly scrambled with running here, there and everywhere. My wallet was also substantially lighter than it had been! Huan needed a nap. I did my Chinese lessons.
In the evening, we had a walk to the old Carrefour, nothing much to see though. There were birds, but we didn’t have the camera!
We ended up back at the hospital greasy spoon area for dinner. Here it is.
So here are at the end of the week, a cliffhanger episode! If you want to find out the results of my multiple tests you will need to tune in again next week. All being well we will be back in Wuzhishan. If there are problems we may still be here in Haikou. Wish us luck!
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